Editing OpenSUSE template creation

Instructions manually create a minimal openSUSE 10.3 template.

== Prerequisites ==

You need running openSUSE 10.3 installation.

== Creating template ==

=== Preparing the base system ===

Run <code>yast2</code> on your openSUSE 10.3 installation (this does not have to be your OpenVZ HN, you can prepare cache on one box and put it on your OpenVZ HN). Proceed with <code>Software->Installation into directory</code> option. It is assumed that this directory is current directory in following instructions (unless otherwise stated).

=== Create device nodes ===

I suggest creating all required nodes directly in the <code>lib/udev/devices/</code>, in that case you don't have to disable udev in startup scripts.

Execute the following commands to create device files:

<pre>
mknod -m 666 lib/udev/devices/full c 1 7
mknod -m 600 lib/udev/devices/initctl p
mknod -m 666 lib/udev/devices/random c 1 8
mknod -m 444 lib/udev/devices/urandom c 1 9
</pre>

Replace console device with regular file (otherwise <code>vzctl stop</code> fails with timeout -- needs more investigation):
<pre>
rm lib/udev/devices/console ; touch lib/udev/devices/console
</pre>

=== Make df working ===
<pre>
rm -f etc/mtab
ln -s /proc/mounts etc/mtab
</pre>

== Disable parallel startup of services ==

Set <code>RUN_PARALLEL</code> variable in <code><DIRINSTALL>/etc/sysconfig/boot</code> to "no".

== Disable boot.klog ==

For some reason, <code>klogd</code> hangs when tries to retrieve kernel log. You need to disable it. Simply delete <code>etc/rc.d/boot.d/S*boot.klog</code>

== Create OS template ==

Create OS template cache by invoking the following command:
 tar --numeric-owner -czf /vz/template/cache/opensuse-10.3-i386-default.tar.gz ./

{{Note|For Debian-based host you should put the archive inside <code>/var/lib/vz/template/cache</code>}}


== startproc troubleshooting ==

It was noted that <code>startproc</code> under recent OpenVZ kernels sometimes fails with errors like <code>startproc: cannot stat /proc/1128/exe: Permission denied</code>. See http://openvz.org/pipermail/devel/2008-January/010278.html and follow-ups for workaround.

[[Category: HOWTO]]
[[Category: Templates]]
@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 </pre>
-=== Fix console redirect ===
+Replace console device with regular file (otherwise <code>vzctl stop</code> fails with timeout -- needs more investigation):
-Open <code>etc/init.d/halt</code> script and replace the following lines:
-<pre>
-# Redirect our mesages to default console
-test -n "$REDIRECT" && exec 0<> $REDIRECT 1>&0 2>&0
-</pre>
-with this one (note <code>|| true</code> at the end):
-<pre>
-# Redirect our mesages to default console
-test -n "$REDIRECT" && exec 0<> $REDIRECT 1>&0 2>&0 || true
-</pre>
-The reason is that this redirect fails with permission denied in OpenVZ environment if <code>$REDIRECT</code> is console device (<code>/dev/console</code>). As a result, script terminates with error (because of <code>set +e</code> at the beginning) and the box is not stopped properly.
-As an option, you can replace console device with regular file:
 <pre>
 rm lib/udev/devices/console ; touch lib/udev/devices/console